People across Europe expect and deserve high quality
services. European business, too, rely on innovative
services solutions to endure in global markets.
Therefore, a competitive European Union that caters
for a high quality of life for its citizens needs a services
industry that lives up to the challenge.
Qualified and motivated services workers are
essential to accomplish this. Quality employment
in services is crucial to create and maintain high
standards of services quality, innovation, and
productivity. A lot can be done during the 2014-19
period to make this happen. Realising this, I support:
1. The development of a comprehensive EU
services policy because a competitive and social
Europe needs a clear strategy for services.
2. A European Investment Plan because investing in
skills and a modern services infrastructure will turn the
services industry into a driver of sustainable growth
and job creation.
3. Social dialogue in services because social
partners know best how to deal with the challenges of
the future in their sectors.
4. Collective bargaining, worker rights, and
effective employment protection legislation
because workers need effective safeguards against
precarious working conditions in services.
5. European legislation that promotes health and
safety at work in services because a social Europe
does not treat worker safety as red tape.

UNI europa • Rue Joseph II 40 • 1000 Bruxelles • Belgium

www.uni-europa.org

6. Strong European cooperation for skills and
lifelong learning in services because well-trained
workers are the strongest asset of an innovative
services industry.
7. EU policies that acknowledge common interests of
customers and service workers because customers
only get a good deal when workers can focus on their
clients’ needs.
8. A consistently regulated European single
market for quality services that impedes social
dumping and protects services of general interest.
9. International trade agreements that are
negotiated transparently and improve working
conditions worldwide because international trade
must not compromise social progress.
10. Services research that is sufficiently funded
and geared towards the needs of practitioners
because scientific evidence is crucial to improve the
governance of services in Europe.
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Quality Jobs for
Quality Services

Fact Sheet for Signatories

Who is UNI Europa?
UNI Europa is the European Trade Union Federation
representing more than seven million employees in
the European services industry. Together we advocate
a strong social pillar in European integration.
What is the Services Manifesto?
The UNI Europa Services Manifesto sets out our
vision of an innovative and quality-oriented services
industry; an industry that is driven by fair competition
in the single market, creates sustainable growth,
and benefits consumers, workers, and businesses
alike. In view of the 2014 European elections, our
Manifesto offers advice to the European Parliament
and Commission on how to turn this vision into reality.
What is the Manifesto Pledge?
With the Manifesto Pledge, UNI Europa gives EU
policy-makers the chance to make their commitment
to quality jobs and quality services visible. By signing
up to the Pledge, policy-makers declare their support
for the arguments brought forward in the Services
Manifesto. UNI Europa will list participating politicians
on its website where European voters can check if the
candidates they vote for care about quality jobs and
social Europe.

basic needs (e.g. retail, care, or media services) or
boost their quality of life (e.g. active leisure or hair &
beauty services). Similarly, business services (such
as financial, logistics, or IT services) enable firms to
increase productivity and to concentrate on their core
business. Ensuring that these essential needs are met
in a way that fosters economic and social progress is
an important, essentially political task.
Why are we taking this step?
We are concerned about how little attention is paid
to the quality of services and services employment
at EU level. Especially the single market for services,
an under-regulated market which encourages social
dumping and low-quality services, illustrates this lack
of attention. European integration must capitalise on
the virtuous circle between quality employment and
quality services to harness our industry’s full potential
for competitiveness and quality of life in the EU.
Boosting the potential for growth and employment of
the services industry – our economy’s biggest sector
– is crucial to end the current crisis and to set Europe
back onto the path of social progress.

Why care about good work in services?
As services are highly labour-intensive, it is crucial to
understand that quality, innovation, and productivity in
services are functions of decent working conditions.
This is what we understand as a virtuous circle:
quality employment in services improves the quality
of services as such. Recognising this virtuous circle
must be the starting point of all policies affecting the
services industry. Above all, this insight must inform
a comprehensive EU services policy which needs to
be drawn up and implemented to ensure a favourable
long-term development of the European services
industry.
Why is it important?
There are good reasons why services contribute in
excess of 65% to both employment and output in
the EU: Services fulfil essential functions in modern
societies and complex economies. Businesses to
consumer services either respond to citizens’ most

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Quality Jobs for
Quality Services

A UNI Europa Services
Manifesto

Growth and employment creation in an
inclusive European economy

As the European Treaties (e.g. Arts. 3 and 151 TFEU)
unambiguously state, European integration follows
the aim of generating social progress. The Treaties
thereby give expression to the firm belief standing at
the heart of UNI Europa’s work: The European project
must serve to improve living and working conditions in
every corner of a peaceful continent.
In sharp contrast to this vision, unacceptable levels
of unemployment and inequality currently threaten
social cohesion in Europe. The European dream
is hollowed out by the combination of austerity and
wage moderation on which European leaders place
their hopes of recovery. Even key achievements are
compromised. For more than 40 years, European
legislation has served to keep workplaces safe and
healthy. Now, a European Commission confusing
smart with anti-social regulation turns its back on the
issue and breaks the Treaties to refuse transposing
social partners’ health and safety agreements into law.

4

We demand that the European Parliament and
Commission use their 2014-19 mandates to revive
the ambition of building an economy that combines
competitiveness with an inclusive European social
model. To end the crisis, Europe needs to return to the
creation of permanent, safe, and skilled employment
that pays a living-wage at the very least. This requires
a growth model that builds on Europe’s strengths: a
skilled workforce and a knowledge-intense economy
producing innovative quality goods and services.
Deregulating Health and Safety at Work
Hairdressers
experience
among
the
highest rates of occupational skin diseases
(eczema, dermatitis etc), bladder cancer,
and musculoskeletal disorders. On 26
April 2012, the European social partners in
hairdressing signed a framework agreement
on the protection of occupational health
and safety that is purpose-built to reduce
these risks. In its REFIT Communication
of 2 October 2013, however, the European
Commission announced its intention to block
this agreement from entering into force for fear
that it might impose ‘bureaucratic burden’ on
business. This constitutes an unprecedented
attack on health & safety legislation and the
autonomy of social partners. Moreover, as
workers, social security systems, and even
most hairdressing companies would benefit
from measures that prevent sick leave and
expensive medical treatments, this is an
incomprehensible decision that needs to be
reversed.

A comprehensive EU services policy

Services contribute in excess of 65% to both output
and employment in the EU. The size of this industry
illustrates that services fulfil essential functions in a
modern society and a complex economy. Reviving
sustainable growth and catering for a high quality
of life in Europe therefore cannot succeed without
targeted policies for the European services industry.
Likewise, quality services are crucial prerequisites for
mastering the challenges of demographic and climate
change successfully. Consequently, the European
Union needs a comprehensive and consistently
implemented services policy that is based on two
commitments:
A commitment to quality employment for quality
services
Given their high labour-intensity, a consistently high
quality of services and innovation capacity in services
depend on a proficient workforce enjoying decent
working conditions. A concern for skills and quality
employment must therefore stand at the core of an
EU services policy for quality- and innovation-driven
growth. This requires social dialogue and worker
involvement.
Quality Jobs for Quality Services – A
Virtuous Circle
Understanding that quality, innovation
capacity, and productivity in services are a
matter of good working conditions is crucial.
Recognising this virtuous circle – the better
the quality of employment in services, the
better the services that are provided – must
be the starting point of all policies affecting
the European services industry.
A commitment to fair and consistent regulation
Regulation in Europe must be made consistent
with the aim of developing a services industry that
creates sustainable growth and quality employment.
Sustainable growth and quality employment in
services are a result of fair competition that encourages
businesses to innovate, specialise, and increase
productivity. This necessitates a new approach in the
EU as can be seen in the single market for services:
relying on deregulation, liberalisation, and privatisation
alone fosters market failure, social dumping, and the
emergence of oligopolies. The European service
industry must be regulated on the basis of thorough
social and economic impact assessments which fully
involve the social partners.
UNI Europa is committed to preparing viable
proposals for an EU services policy that ensures
a favourable long-term development of the
European services industry. We encourage the
European Parliament, Commission, and Council
to join us in this debate. This manifesto highlights
priority areas to be covered by such an EU
services policy.

Investment into jobs and quality services
for economic and social progress

Europe needs a large-scale investment programme of
at least 2% of GDP annually over the coming years
to break the vicious circle of austerity, disinvestment,

and prolonged crisis. Such an investment plan must
support the aim of developing a services industry that
creates much needed sustainable growth and quality
jobs. Social investments that serve to improve the
situation of the most crisis-affected groups such as
women, youth, migrants, and handicapped persons
must be given adequate weight.
Invest in skills for quality and innovation in
services
Our changing society and economy constantly produce
new challenges that need to be met with innovative,
high quality service solutions. Investments into a
skilled workforce that proves capable of providing
these services are crucial to improve competitiveness
and quality of life in Europe. Particular emphasis
must be given to skills for social innovation. Such
innovation processes must integrate employees’ and
consumers’ interests in order to improve living and
working conditions.
Invest in services infrastructure for a changing
society and economy
Services that cater for the needs of a changing
society and resource-efficient economy rely on a
modern services infrastructure. Investments into care
facilities or ‘green’ ICT, for instance, must therefore be
given priority. Additionally, addressing infrastructure
needs of growing service sectors promises high
returns in terms of growth and job creation. Building a
European payment system for e-commerce is such an
opportunity that must not be missed.
One Europe, One E-Payment
Infrastructure?
Paying electronically at the local supermarket
is already something that millions of
Europeans do every day. However, if you
are an online shopper and ordering an item
from a seller in another country, things are
not quite as straightforward. Maybe you don’t
have the type of payment card that your
seller is asking or your payment takes ages
to reach the vendor. These are problems
that a united Europe can and must resolve
immediately, especially if doing so means that
jobs are created and consumers’ experience
is improved.

Social dialogue for a strong services
industry

Social dialogue is an effective tool to establish and
maintain the high quality of employment on which a
strong and innovative services industry depends.
Effective social dialogue must therefore be promoted,
one that is open to all types of workers including
the self-employed, part-timers, and posted workers.
The EU must ensure adequate funding and support
the creation of European sectoral social dialogue
committees where they are currently lacking.
Support the effectiveness of social dialogue
Sectoral social dialogue is instrumental in addressing
challenges and problems for work in services in
socially balanced ways. Social partners’ expertise
guarantees that sector-specific conditions are taken
into due account in defining, for instance, strategies

5

for age-friendly workplaces or health and safety
provisions. Social dialogue agreements are therefore
the most likely sources of proportional regulation and
comply with the principle of subsidiarity. The EU must
hence fulfil its legal role in transposing social dialogue
agreements into legal acts on social partners’ request.
Develop a strong European dimension to industrial
relations
The services industry is becoming genuinely
European. The single market allows companies to
turn multinational or to implement comprehensive
outsourcing or off-shoring strategies. Industrial
relations must be adapted to this new reality. Concrete
EU action is required to strengthen worker rights in
company policies affecting workers in more than one
country. In particular, this necessitates a mandatory
European legal framework for worker involvement
in the anticipation and management of change and
restructuring.

Worker rights and regulation for quality
employment instead of precarious work
Creating quality jobs in services is essential to fight
unemployment and inequality in Europe. Yet, too
many services workers suffer from low-pay, forced
part-time, lacking social security, deficient health
and safety arrangements, or work at unsocial hours.
Especially vulnerable groups (e.g. youth, women,
migrants) are affected and demand a European Union
that pulls every lever to improve working conditions
and fight precarious employment in services.
Don’t Let the EU Become Anti-Labour
For more than 100 years, collective
agreements and industrial action have been
instrumental in protecting workers against
precarious terms of employment. Recently,
though, the EU has made it more difficult to
exercise these fundamental worker rights.
The scope of collective agreements has been
narrowed in numerous Member States on the
Commission’s behest and EU law prevents
the many self-employed workers in the media
sector to bargain wages collectively for fear
of price-rigging, to name but two examples.
This stance must change in order to improve
the situation of the many service workers in
precarious employment.
Strengthen collective bargaining and trade unions
Empowering service workers and their trade unions to
engage in collective bargaining and industrial action is
the most effective tool to foster fair wages and quality
employment. The EU must therefore respect and
promote fundamental worker rights and ensure that
all service workers, including the self-employed, can
exercise them.

6

Effective employment protection legislation
Fair and inclusive labour markets require consistent
rules. Legal grey areas lead to precarious work such
as bogus self-employment and unprotected posted
workers. Such loopholes must be closed by means of
unambiguous regulation including minimum standards
of social protection. Host country legislation must
apply to workers posted across borders. Using social

partners’ expertise, in particular through European
social partner agreements, is crucial to create a fraudproof European labour market regime.
Ensuring adequate enforcement capacity
Austerity has weakened Member States’ law
enforcement capacity which leads to a growth of
the informal economy, especially in sectors such as
cleaning and care. Well-financed and effective labour
inspectorates are needed to stop this trend that
hampers recovery.
Europe needs fraud-proof labour markets
The single European market gives companies
a great deal of flexibility, including in the
management of staff. Some employers use
this flexibility in ways that are to be objected.
Take the example of company X from Member
State A that, through a subsidiary Y, hires a
worker under the laws of country B to post
the employee to country C. It now becomes
extremely difficult for public authorities to tell
which country’s laws or collective agreements
apply. Such highly complex arrangements
open up grey areas that facilitate fraud and
social dumping. Trade unions demand that no
time is wasted in closing such loopholes!

A single European market for quality
services
A quality - and innovation - oriented services industry
must be embedded in a single market that encourages
fair competition and produces convergence. Especially
the services directive, though, epitomises a failed
approach to single market integration that fosters
social and wage dumping as well as precarious work.
Such integration deteriorates working conditions
in services and, as a corollary, services quality.
Integration in the interest of consumers, workers, and
society requires a more nuanced approach to single
market (re-)regulation.
Strengthen social rights in the single market
Single market integration must not undermine
collective agreements and interfere with worker rights.
The European trade union movement’s proposal for
a Social Progress Protocol offers clear guidance for
correcting current imbalances between economic and
social rights. The revised public procurement directive
with its mandatory social clause is a first step into the
right direction which now faces the test of consistent
implementation.
Assure the quality and availability of services of
general interest
UNI Europa insists that the definition and provision
of services of general interest is a matter for Member
States. We reject in particular the planned liberalisation
of the awarding of services concessions. Competition
cannot be an end in itself. Past liberalisation exercises
that have, for instance, deprived rural populations of
satisfactory access to postal services illustrate this
fact and must therefore be reversed.

Liberalisation Has Failed!
The Post and Logistics sector is a shining
example of the failure of the European
liberalisation agenda in services (of general
interest). Liberalisation in this sector that used
to be in the hands of national monopolists has
failed to deliver on the European Commission’s
promise of ‘better services at lower prices’:
former monopolists still enjoy concentrated
market power but are no longer bound by
considerations of public interest. This has led
to the situation where big business customers
can get all the services they need while
ordinary consumers have to queue up in the
few remaining post offices to get access to the
most basic (but still expensive) postal services.
For post workers, too, the effects have been
disastrous. A recent study commissioned by
UNI Post & Logistics shows that, on average,
liberalisation has led to less jobs in this sector
and the remaining workforce suffers from
precarious work and atypical employment,
such as part-time or self-employment.

Skills and qualifications for quality and
innovation in services

Quality services and successful innovation in services
are a result of knowledgeable work in services.
Addressing skills and qualifications needs is crucial for
a strong services industry. This must be underpinned
by a consistent European Qualifications Framework
for the cross-border transferability of competencies.
Related measures must be taken as a matter of
urgency: The currently discussed youth guarantee
schemes typically bring most participating youth
into work in services. This emphasises the need to
develop excellent vocational education and training
(VET) policies in services.

Enhance cooperation for skills in services
Services-specific skills, such as interactive or
caring skills, are essential for the quality of many
services. Nevertheless, their recognition as formal
competencies is often lacking in national VET systems.
European cooperation to mainstream best practices in
this field is of utmost importance to address related
skills needs. Social partners, for instance in the form
of sector skills councils, can offer valuable guidance
concerning most pressing challenges and adequate
responses.
Sector Skills Councils
Sector
skills
councils
are
platforms
where stakeholders, including the social
partners, seek to gain insight into the likely
developments in skills needs in their sector.
Based on detailed analyses of ongoing and
expected transformations, skills councils
develop guidelines which assist policy-making
within and for their sectors. If conducted in
close cooperation with social partners, this
practice helps to avoid bottlenecks and skills
mismatches and should therefore be adopted
across all sectors of the European services
industry.
Assure access to lifelong learning in services
Careers in services are becoming increasingly long.
At the same time, skills needs are transforming at an
unprecedented pace. Service workers therefore need
an enforceable right to lifelong learning to enable them
to develop individual competencies. This includes a
right to paid training leave. Ensuring excellent lifelong
learning in services is of particular importance: it is
usually employment in services that (re-)integrates
vulnerable groups into the labour market. Additionally,
the European Social Fund, in cooperation with social
partners, must finance programmes supporting the
employability of workers in cases of restructuring.

Strengthening the relationship between
workers and consumers
A consistently high quality of services is of essential
importance for a well-functioning economy and a
liveable European society. Customers have a right
to get good services. Yet, this right is meaningless
unless employees do in fact work under conditions that
allow them to provide quality services. The EU must
therefore strengthen synergies between customer
and worker rights.

Services standardisation for consumers and
workers
European services standardisation must adequately
reflect the interdependence between working
conditions and service quality. Standards that
deteriorate working conditions are therefore not
admissible. European standardisation agencies must
be made fully accountable and involve social partners.
Eliminating trade-offs between workers’ and
customers’ interests
Performance management systems at company level,
for instance in the form of variable pay schemes, may
bully employees into maximising companies’ profit
instead of giving customers a good deal.

7

To ensure that quality advice stands at the heart of the
relationship between service workers and customers,
the EU must support social partners in eradicating
unreasonable sales pressure or take own legislative
action.

Globalisation and international trade in
services

The volume of international trade in services is
growing, not least as a consequence of trade
agreements that are negotiated and signed by the EU.
Such agreements may have strong effects on working
conditions and employment in services if they stipulate
the removal of ‘trade barriers’ through liberalisation,
deregulation, and privatisation measures. The EU
must defend the aim of creating quality employment in
services, especially when negotiating the envisaged
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and
Trade in Services Agreement.
Refrain from compromising social progress in
intransparent negotiations
Trade negotiations must be conducted in a way that
allows for comprehensive public scrutiny. Agreements
stipulating liberalisation under WTO mode 4
(free movement of workers) without assuring the
applicability of host country rules are unacceptable.
We equally oppose further privatisation measures
and liberalisation of services of general interest.
The preservation of cultural diversity, as foreseen
by the UNESCO convention of 20 October 2005,
further demands that audiovisual media and cultural
undertakings are exempted from trade deals.
Improve working conditions worldwide through
international trade
Trade agreements must contain social safeguard
clauses and be used to promote decent work. For this
reason, the EU must not conclude trade agreements
with countries violating worker and trade union rights.
Under no circumstances must trade agreements
establish dispute settlement procedures that privilege
investors’ interests over worker rights.
Limit the Scope of Dispute Settlement
Procedures
Trade agreements typically include chapters
on investor protection. Not uncommonly,
these contain clauses which grant the right
to appeal before international arbitration
bodies if investors allege that the value of their
investment is reduced by changes in applicable
country legislation. These arbitration bodies
typically lack transparency, bypass national
legal systems, and privilege investor rights
over considerations of public interest. Such
arrangements have led to situations in which
investors have been granted compensation for
changes in public health or labour laws. This is
unacceptable from a trade union point of view.

UNI europa • Rue Joseph II 40 • 1000 Bruxelles • Belgium

www.uni-europa.org

Services research for a systematically
governed and strong services industry

A successful EU services policy for a quality - and
innovation - centred services industry must be based
on scientific evidence. This requires policy-oriented
research programmes bringing together the various
strands of excellent research, for instance, on working
conditions, business models, or innovation in services.
Ensure adequate funding for services research
Establishing the EU-level governance of services as a
research theme is crucial for an evidence-based and
successful EU services policy. Adequate funding for
such necessarily transnational research must be made
available under the new Horizon 2020 framework.
Improve the take-up of research results in services
through stakeholder dialogue
A robust development of the European services
industry requires stronger ties between scientists,
policy-makers, and social partners. EU funding for
services research must hence be targeted specifically
toward more effective stakeholder dialogue.
Following the broad lines set out in this manifesto
gives the European Parliament and Commission
the opportunity to embark on a viable path of
social and economic recovery in Europe. Only a
well-governed services industry can make full use
of its potential for lifting Europe out of the current
crisis and ensuring Europe’s future.